Max Payne is a reasonably good third-person shooter. The gameplay is definitely there, and the graphics are pretty good. The game does get a little repetitive, but a variety of weapons to pummel enemies with helps ease that. My #1 complaint is the god-awful dialog/voice acting/story line. Hopefully this is something that they will remedy for the sequel.

The PC version's visual quality--on a suitably good PC--managed to completely live up to the very high expectations produced by the early press, and the good news is that the Xbox version essentially looks just as good.

One key improvement over the PS2 version is the lack of load times. Whereas levels had to be chopped up in that version the Xbox allows them to be loaded in the same way as the PC original, virtually eliminating any load times and keeping the sense of immersion high.